


this realm has ever known (i did)

by endquestionmark



Category: The Avengers (2012), Thor (2011)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-12
Updated: 2012-05-12
Packaged: 2017-11-05 05:40:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/403033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/endquestionmark/pseuds/endquestionmark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One day they will tell stories of her; one day she will sail in flames.  (The Lady Sif is a smile between parries.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	this realm has ever known (i did)

“No,” she says, holding her side. Her fingers are bloody and her blood is warm and wet. “I will die a warrior’s death. Stories will be told of this day.”  
  
“Live, and tell those stories yourself,” Thor says to her, and she chokes back a sob. She will not cry. She is the Lady Sif, and she will live to carouse with her Warriors Three another day. Her skin is already knitting together, here in the bright desert sun, and she closes her eyes and tilts her head back.  
  
She will die a warrior’s death someday, and they will sing for her, will leave her body in state on a great longship, surrounded by casks of wine and smoked meat for her journey, will set it ablaze. She will sail in flames.  
  
Today is not that day, though, so she lets the sun warm her, a whisper of fire.  
  
++  
  
She meets Natasha much, much later.  
  
“You are indebted to him,” she says, and Natasha says nothing. Natasha does not say much to her, and Sif does not reply. They take each other’s measure in silence; Sif recognizes the blood on Natasha’s hands and Natasha sees the blades in Sif’s smile. One warrior to another, they take stock of each other, and the room is quiet and still. Nobody speaks. Thor and Jane hang back by the door, and the archer stands behind Natasha.  
  
What Sif does not say is this:  _you owe him more than you can ever repay. You say love is for children, but a child would recognize that what you have is closer than the closest friends, forged in war and tempered in blood. You will never quite repay him anyway. He will never quite repay you._  
  
What Natasha does not say is this:  _Once there was a silver-tongued god of lies, and once there was the fiercest warrior in all the Nine Realms, and once an ebon-haired girl stabbed the liar, the trickster, to his heart. He bears the wounds to this day. She will never forget the sweetness of his blood._  
  
All in all, perhaps it is best that they remain silent.  
  
++  
  
Pepper Potts has lived her life, her great love, around a human weapon, a mind sharpened to a razor-sharp point, and so of course she sees Sif for who she is - goddess of war, whose music is the ringing of spear on shield, of sword on breastplate, of bone-crack.  
  
“Do you never worry that he will kill you, will kill himself and drag you with him,” Sif asks. It is not in truth a question. She already knows the answer.  
  
“Every day,” Pepper says, barefoot and casual. Sif has knives hidden in her long braid, in her boots, strapped to her arms. Pepper wears cutoffs and leaves her hair loose. They could not be more different if Pepper were a bird and Sif some fearsome creature of the sea.  
  
But then Pepper is a child of the day, of the sun; for all her love, she will never glory in bloodshed, will never know the fever of war, and Sif is - not a whisper in the night, like Natasha. There is no glory in subterfuge. Sif is something dark, though; perhaps she is a smile between parries, the scrape of steel.  
  
For every sunrise, there is a sunset. Sif and Pepper share only the dawn and the dusk.  
  
++  
  
One day they will tell stories of her; one day she will sail in flames.  
  
The silver-tongued god of lies, the goddess of war; a whisper in the night, child of the sunrise.  
  
They will sing stories of her.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [this realm has ever known (i did) (podfic)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/698806) by [susan_voight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/susan_voight/pseuds/susan_voight)




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